Zubb 1061 Posted February 19, 2017 Rumor had it this would be a good one. You never really know with some group rides. So I signed up with 30 soon to be friends for a moto camping 3 day weekend on February 10-12. Wasn't any 'risk' really because it was to be sponsored by Vey's and Klim, and they are good people who know how do it up right. The challenge was going to be weather, and which tires to run. Destination was undisclosed. You'd find out when you signed in Friday morning to launch. We knew it would be high desert, and it was going to be cold. And rain. And 5.5 hours of pavement to get there. So I decided on running the Tourances instead of knobbies and would air down when necessary. Friday 8am at Vey's and 7 out of 30 show up. The forecast is rain, cold, then more rain and cold. Campsite destination was disclosed as Tuttle creek outside of Lone Pine. The Saturday ride would be Death Valley. YES!! We took a somewhat indirect route up until 79 forced us finally onto HY15 North. Then the long slog up 15 and 395 to Lone Pine. The Klim van beat us there and set up a nice kitchen and had the fire roaring which was great... because it rained off and on much of the way, and the wind up there never stopped. Jason and Steve were perfect hosts always keeping a fire going, and food pumping out of the 'kitchen' with plenty of beer and water to boot. These guys rocked it. Even the coffee was awesome! Camp was set, toasts were made, food and beer was inhaled... and the ice cold wind never stopped blowing down from those mountains all evening long. To be continued ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkug 146 Posted February 19, 2017 I see my old bike - Dave Morton is the new owner. Said he went on a ride but did not know it was the Klim ride . Cool !!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zubb 1061 Posted February 19, 2017 At some point in the evening, the wind fell to a brisk breeze and the clouds started to clear. The moon lit up the snowy mountains like it was twilight again. The wind never really stopped, which made camp a little less 'easy' as you never got to take off your gloves except to shove them in the fire or your pockets. It was cold enough that you didn't want to dally around too long taking a picture because two things would happen. 1. your hands would quickly go numb, and 2. your phone would get too cold too fast and just shut down. But dawn broke kinda clear and excitement was in the air for the days ride. And magically about 10 more riders showed up at breakfast. Some rode in during the night, some trailered in their bikes. We wound through some great dirt roads and eventually jumped the 15 into DV to Keeler and then up to Cerro Gordo Ghost town. Again, it was just too darn cold to dig out the camera as often as I would have liked. Jason talks with his hands a lot. But dang can he cook! In the kitchen and on the trail. The road steepens and snow banks start to appear. We have to skirt a few but nothing too dramatic. Above 8000' the air was ice cold, snow was blowing, and we reach the old ghost mining town of Cerro Gordo. Some poor fella sat in the corner chair here about 125 years ago when someone who didn't like him much showed up outside the window. You can see the buckshot on the left wall, and rifle slug on the right wall. There's still blood stains on the floor under the chair. .... continued... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MacDuncan 131 Posted February 19, 2017 Hey Zubb, Way to go, super cool (literally - haha) and looks like it was a great adventure. Happy belated B-day too. Cheers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zubb 1061 Posted February 19, 2017 I haven't even scratched the surface of cool stuff and stunning views here due to both time and cold weather shutting down the photo ops. Can't wait to go back and really work on better pics and more roads. Back down we go .... To pizza for lunch in Lone Pine. After lunch I hung back with Justin for a few as he'd bent his front rim and was riding it flat. He hit the hardware store and filled it with Slime, air it up a bit and off we raced to catch the group heading north along the bottom of the mountains on the east side of 395. Jason was lolly gagging on his 1290 and I was white knuckling it behind him as I'm a sand noob on Tourances. He never let on that I was holding him back. And I manned up a bit and just rolled on the throttle at 40 in the deeper sand pockets. It takes a bit of faith and a certain amount of disregard for bike and limb. But I nailed it and felt I was really progressing in spite of being under-tired for the conditions. We would occasionally find our route turning into lakes. Like 50-100 yards across. So then we'd bushwhack through sagebrush until we hit another trail. Fun and challenging on the 640lb bike. We caught the group at another old mine and then headed for the dirt roads by the Japanese Internment Camp on the west side of 395, and back to camp. One could seriously spend a couple days just lining up fantastic photo's of this whole area. I bring you barely a pittance of what we saw that day. The old adage, when in doubt, gas it out has worked just fine for me so far. It took a few dirt naps for me to learn when things get squirrly to just say F***it! and roll it on. But somewhere along the line I never got the memo that if you're clipping along through a nice long slimey mud bog..... you probably shouldn't do that. Especially on Tourances. I tried to skirt the left side and juiced it a little and suddenly the rear end whipped right by me. Funny how that works, I'm keeping notes on that stuff for future reference. Back to camp, where beer, fire and food are waiting. It was a beautiful evening with a lot less wind. Plenty of laughter, story telling, and ribbing to go around. A beautiful sky for the evening. The wind came up at bedtime and my rainfly (and my neighbors) flapped hard all night. Ugh. So about 430 or 5am I got up and packed my kit. Sunday we were on our own to get home and since I tend to travel a bit faster than most groups I decided to roll out early. The morning sun on the Sierra Nevada's was stunning. Here in particular is where an iPhone 6 can't capture the moment. It was brilliant really. I stopped in Lone Pine to air back up and pop inside for a nice hot breakfast and coffee. Hanging with new friends is always a good time and I really enjoyed this trip. But I always look forward to a little solitude as well. The ride home was just the perfect ending. Aerosmith in my headset, that good old Touring mindset, wide open roads, every few miles it got a couple degrees warmer. Life is good my friends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wierdrider 187 Posted February 19, 2017 I was wondering when we were going to hear about this ride, excellent write up so far. Keep it coming. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zubb 1061 Posted February 19, 2017 25 minutes ago, MacDuncan said: Hey Zubb, Way to go, super cool (literally - haha) and looks like it was a great adventure. Happy belated B-day too. Cheers. Thank you sir! If you're wondering what to get me, I'm pretty sure an XL Badlands jacket will fit me just fine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bp619 104 Posted February 19, 2017 Awesome trip looks like fun besides the cold. Might need to jump on the next klim ride Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darylhunter 1 Posted February 19, 2017 I'm really happy with my Badlands jacket. Felt a bit too long in the sleeves for me when I first tried it out, but I took the advise of others and went with it anyway. Never bothered me a bit riding the bike and once the jacket got broken in I never gave it a thought. Feels even better now that I've laundered it once. Veys and KLIM do a great job on these rides and I'd like to do another one with them some time. Sounds like this ride was really fun except for the weather part. Would like to give it a go on a warmer weekend. Did anybody get tracks? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zubb 1061 Posted February 19, 2017 2 hours ago, darylhunter said: Did anybody get tracks? Yes, my Zumo 590 has them buried in it's memory. I have no idea how to get out of there, or even store them in a trip format. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zubb 1061 Posted February 19, 2017 2 minutes ago, Zubb said: Yes, my Zumo 590 has them buried in it's memory. I have no idea how to get out of there, or even store them in a trip format. I am quite proficient at file management in daily business. I just don't speak garmin yet,,, and it pisses me off because no one seems to publish a step 1 2 3 guide for saving tracks, naming them, where to store them, how to call them up on the Zumo ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darylhunter 1 Posted February 19, 2017 In the past I used the Garmin Mapsource program, but since switching over to the Mac I've started using their BaseCamp software. I believe it is a free download from Garmin. Once you have that installed on your computer, any you plug in your Zumo it should recognize the device and offer to download the tracks. After that, it isn't too hard to export them to a file. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zubb 1061 Posted February 20, 2017 19 hours ago, darylhunter said: In the past I used the Garmin Mapsource program, but since switching over to the Mac I've started using their BaseCamp software. I believe it is a free download from Garmin. Once you have that installed on your computer, any you plug in your Zumo it should recognize the device and offer to download the tracks. After that, it isn't too hard to export them to a file. I have Basecamp and have spent a couple hours watching tutorials and putzing with it. For me it is not intuitive. Doesn't mean it's not a great program, just that I probably need a Tutor standing over my shoulder explaining how this program 'thinks'. I really like Furkot and used it a lot for basic trip planning before I got a dedicated GPS (the Zumo). I know Furkot can work with the Zumo, but again it takes time to monkey with this stuff and a learning curve. It's hard enough to find time to ride, let alone learn new software. But now I'm complaining so I'll shut up and carry on. Loved this trip and the cold just made it more challenging which is all part of "Adventure" riding. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
